This
is the earliest edition I have of Air Trails Hobbies for Young Men, so this is also the first edition of Sketchbook
I have. Sketchbook continued for many years as a monthly feature where modelers wrote to the magazine with handy ideas
for saving time and/or money, and just for offering tips and suggestions on a different way of doing something. In those
days there was not the plethora of accessories available for building models, so a lot of creativity was involved. Even
items as commonplace as bellcranks for control line models and dethermalizers for free flight were fabricated from salvaged
parts like metal soup cans and hairpins. I'm guessing no magazine today would publish a scheme to attach bottle rockets
to a model airplane as is shown here.

Have you developed something new in construction, control, or flying? Send a rough sketch - we'll redraw it and
pay $5 for each accepted. Contributions should be original ideas; sorry, we cannot enter into any correspondence
on submissions.

Back when
the Sketchbook, Gadgetry, Powerless Pointers, and Engine Info columns were run, there were
very few pre-built models, and there simply was not as much available in the way of hardware and specialized
modeling tools. We were still a nation of designers and builders. The workforce was full of people
who worked on production lines, built houses and buildings with hand tools, and did not have distractions
like Nintendos and X-Boxes. Remember that plastics were not common material until the early 50s
and the transistor wasn't invented until late 47. Enjoy the tips. Some of you will no doubt
wax nostalgic over the methods, since you can remember the days when you did the exact same thing!

Even during the busiest times of my life I have endeavored to maintain some form
of model building activity. This site has been created to help me chronicle my journey
through a lifelong involvement in model aviation, which
all began in Mayo,
MD ...